I ditto what you are saying. All of the keyword volume data the system is stating is completely way off, false and misleading. They are pulling these numbers now from 3rd party sources, which we all know are directional, but in many cases in left field! I just signed up and will probably be cancelling because I can’t trust or rely on their data. What a shame, because before it was such a great tool.
Great article again. I was just thinking why can’t I find an article of yours on keyword research and then boom here it is. Thanks again. On another subject are your articles on link building still relevant ?. As I have been guilty of as Brian Deane calls it the publish and pray method. I would really like to know what is method of choice for link building. Thanks again Ian.
Well there are a few things I look for (I will produce a bonus video about this topic and add it to the other bonus video tutorial) but basically I like to see sites like forums/niche sites/Q&A sites in the top 10 along with other things like sites that are not targeting exact keyword in title/meta, sites with low page authority and domain authority, sites that are less than 3 years old etc etc
We prefer and suggest Long Tail Pro to all our clients. Long Tail Pro is the best long tail keyword research software online. I use their software for researching keywords for everything from social media marketing bios, to page and blog post titles, to headings (H2, H3, etc.), to meta descriptions, to YouTube descriptions, to content/articles, and so much more!
It's not always about getting visitors to your site, but about getting the right kind of visitors. The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated; with keyword research you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content that web searchers are actively seeking. In the history of marketing, there has never been such a low barrier to entry in understanding the motivations of consumers in virtually any niche.
Mentioned in the above video is the Keyword Competitiveness (KC) feature within Long Tail Pro. With earlier versions of Long Tail Pro, you could only access this feature if you paid extra to upgrade to the Platinum version of Long Tail Pro. Pricing structures and the way the software is delivered has evolved over the years – and currently (as of the date I am writing this) all features of the software are included no matter which payment plan you choose. So right now – everybody who buys Long Tail Pro has access to this extremely powerful feature.
Mentioned in the above video is the Keyword Competitiveness (KC) feature within Long Tail Pro. With earlier versions of Long Tail Pro, you could only access this feature if you paid extra to upgrade to the Platinum version of Long Tail Pro. Pricing structures and the way the software is delivered has evolved over the years – and currently (as of the date I am writing this) all features of the software are included no matter which payment plan you choose. So right now – everybody who buys Long Tail Pro has access to this extremely powerful feature.
I’ve found google trends to be an interesting way to see if a keyword (and by extension a niche) is growing or shrinking, and whether it’s seasonal or not. I can’t think of any other tool out there that can reliably tell you this information, so that’s really useful. Also, if you’re building a site, especially an authority site, getting onto something that’s trending upwards is a fantastic idea.
Pricing plans and pricing structures for Long Tail Pro have changed several times over the years since I first purchased it. I’m not going to make the mistake of publishing any pricing information here. I’ve done that in the past on this blog and I still have several old posts that are live with incorrect pricing information. There is a good chance that people will still be reading this very post several years from now – and surely the pricing that is available today will be different in the future. Just like it was way different in the past. Please click on any of my links within this post or anywhere else on my site to see the latest prices for Long Tail Pro.
Can't go wrong with the Google Keyword tool, SEMRush and Google Trends. The Keyword tool for volume estimates, SEMRush to see what keywords competitors are ranking for/targeting, and Google Trends to make sure the traffic is actually coming from countries I'm trying to target. Gives a relatively accurate picture of when to expect traffic spikes and seasonality insight.

I recently decided to go with ahrefs after using spyfu for a couple years and trialing secockpit. I was a moz client for awhile too about a year ago. I found spyfu data to be sketchy (or just plain wrong) fairly often, and moz, I don’t know, just didn’t seem like they were really into supporting what I wanted to know. secockpit was achingly slow for a trickle of data. ahrefs isn’t nearly so graph-y as spyfu, but they are so blazing fast and the data is so deep. I enjoy it a great deal, even if it is spendy.

To be able to rank in the search engines is an art that must be understood and finding the right Keyword tool that fits into your comfort zone is a must. What I mean by ‘comfort zone’ is having a keyword tool that doesn’t confuse you before you begin even searching. Some go into far too much detail than is necessary. All you need really are good long tail ‘common sense’ keywords that other marketers may have missed.
"With Google giving over the home page to ads and their own properties for commercial keywords, the Long Tail keyword is more important than ever. If you have a website, you know that most of your traffic comes from keywords you never would have thought of. With Keyword Researcher, you can find them in advance and make sure that you're the one that snags this traffic. I use it for all of my e-commerce site planning."
You cannot have a guarantee that you will enhance your ranking and get to the top ten results by making use of the most popular keywords. The situation may worsen when you keep on increasing the amount of content on your website. The only way you can be sure of recording success in your campaigns is by making use of keywords that are not only creative but also relevant. This is the main reason why we have the AdWords and SEO keyword permutation generator tool. The interface of this tool is very easy to use and has three boxes for text entry and you will be required to fill in as many keywords and you like and the generator will work out several permutations that produce very creative and useful keywords that you can include in your content. However, you will be expected to keenly watch the keyword generator because some of them may not make sense.
I was paid approximately 2/3 of the funds upfront and will receive about 1/3 over the next 2 years. It's now been almost 7 months since we closed the deal, and I've received the first couple of seller financing payments for that final 1/3 on time and am very confident that will continue for the next year and a half until I'm fully paid that final portion.